Firefighters in the capital spend more money each year on rescuing animals than freeing trapped children. 

London Fire Brigade (LFB) is urging the public to think twice before calling 999, as new figures show they spent on average £13,000 a month last year on animal rescues. 

Between April 2014 and April 2015, it cost the Brigade approximately £156,000 to attend 557 incidents involving trapped or distressed animals.  

In Waltham Forest, there were 20 incidents alone, involving a call-out in June 2014 to a goat trapped on a ledge in Chingford, a hamster trapped in a fireplace in Leytonstone in October, and "ducklings in distress".  

Last year, LFB revealed they had spent £240,000 since 2009 dealing with 8,189 incidents involving trapped children.  

Although the number of incidents have steadily decreased, LFB has said it still remains too high and the first port of call should always be to the RSPCA.

The £13,000 monthly cost has been calculated on the basis of it costing firefighters £295 to send one appliance to each incident. 

Types of rescues across London over the past year have included a fox with its head stuck in a bucket, a squirrel trapped on a satellite dish, a chimp in a chimney in Tower Hamlets, a snake on the roof of a mosque in Camden and a cat trapped in a letterbox in Hounslow. 

Cats contributed to more than half of all incidents -a total of 287, while dogs accounted for less than a third with 82 call outs.

LFB director of operations, Dave Brown, said: "We will always be there in an emergency but not all animal rescues need our help.

"As well as being time consuming, animal rescues cost the taxpayer and I'm sure most people would prefer their money was being spent on training or fire prevention work, than cats up trees."

The RSPCA rescued 127,321 wild, exotic, farm and domestic animals from dangerous and distressing situations during the same period. 

An RSPCA spokesman, added: "Wherever we can, the RSPCA will aim to rescue an animal or animals without calling on the resources of the fire and rescue service."

If an animal is injured or distressed and needs rescuing, call the RSPCA's 24-hour hotline on 0300 1234 999.